


Zombie

by Zeigarnik



Category: Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine
Genre: Angst, Apocalypse, F/M, Gore, Suicide, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies, angst angst angst, gore?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 10:08:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15386469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zeigarnik/pseuds/Zeigarnik
Summary: Gentleman loses his crew, one by one.





	Zombie

At some point Gentleman had accepted the fact that he couldn’t save him, but something in his mind couldn’t bear the thought of being without him either, much less being the one to take him out of this world.

 

Maybe it was the first hot gush of blood that had spilled out from Cleaner’s wrist after pulling his hand away from a deep bite wound, one that had ripped flesh and torn veins and arteries by the looks of it, that had to be the case with just how much blood had been seeping through Cleaner’s fingers as he did his best to apply pressure while he felt himself growing weaker and weaker by the minute. Maybe that’s when he knew he was going to lose his friend.

 

Would it be to blood loss though? Or to the sickness? It was impossible to tell, and Cleaner hadn’t given his professional opinion on anything other than rather rudely letting Gentleman know where he could stuff the gauze he had shakily tried to wrap around his wrist to try and stanch the flow. Gentleman had heard him muttering, whispering to himself something he couldn’t _quite_ make sense of, something about human mouths being _disgusting_ , and mortality rates climbing, rates of infections spreading, news reports… he almost sounded delirious, but his expression was cold and calculating despite the sweat beading on the side of his head.

 

He was trying to figure out how long he had to live. Not only from blood loss that he couldn’t _really_ do anything about with the tools they had, but from a deadly infection spreading through his body. He knew he wasn’t going to make it one way or another, he’d accepted that and was trying to figure how long he had before he became a danger to the others in the van.

 

“imsorryimsorryfuckimsosorry...” Hacker mumbled from the seat in front of them, rocking back and forth slowly and muttering to himself, to Cleaner despite the fact that he was doing little more than whispering under his breath. It was still easy to hear even over the roar of the van’s engines as Mole struggled to navigate through cluttered streets of cars that had been abandoned quite some time ago, as well as avoiding zombies that might get in the way and damage their van beyond repair. It was the best chance they had at this point… “gotbitgonnadie”

 

Gentleman had opened his mouth to say something to Hacker, to try and quiet the panicking man while he dealt with Cleaner’s worsening condition, but before he could utter a word to him, Cleaner had reached out with a bloody hand and placed it on Hacker’s shoulder to give him a tight squeeze, and Gentleman had to quickly replace the pressure on Cleaner’s wrist with his own hand, warm blood oozing up between his fingers almost immediately, and he looked up from the man’s wrist and his own hand to Cleaner’s face, and it hit him just how _drained_ the man looked…

 

Hacker’s head jerked up, eyes flooded with tears that spilled over and ran down his splotchy red cheeks, and they widened when they saw the bloody hand staining his hoodie before he quickly turned to look over the back of his seat at Cleaner, jaw trembling at the way the man was looking at him, holding his shoulder tight to try and get him to _calm down_ , despite the fact that Cleaner knew good and well it probably wouldn’t help much, not for long anyway.

 

They were all jostled rather violently as the van took a sharp turn and ran over something big enough to cause the van to bounce harshly underneath them all, and Cleaner groaned in pain as Gentleman’s hand pressed down on his wrist in a way that sent fire up his whole arm, and quickly Gentleman looked back towards the front of the van and shouted for Mole to be careful, to remember that they had someone hurt in the back. Mole yelled that he was doing his best, and that he needed to drive quickly if he wanted to make sure no zombies grabbed hold of their van and caused more damage to it than had already been done. Cleaner shook his head though, pulling his good hand away from Hacker to grab the front of Gentleman’s suit and drag him a little closer as he left an awful blood stain on his front as well. When he had the man’s attention he motioned for him to stop the van, pull over, _please_ …

 

Gentleman wanted to respond. He wanted to say no, to tell Cleaner they would find a way out of this just like they always had, that Cleaner was going to be the one to pull through out of millions. He couldn’t though, his voice caught in his throat at the worst of times, and all he could manage was a small shake of his head, eyes full of pain that Cleaner could read so clearly.

 

There was no fighting Cleaner though.

 

“Mole, Pull over...” Gentleman called to the front, eyes still locked on Cleaner’s, his voice wavering just slightly as he spoke.

 

“But Gentleman said we need to-” Mole started, but he was quickly cut off by his uncle.

 

“I said _PULL OVER_!” Gentleman roared.

 

The van screeched to a sudden halt in the middle of a street, an eerie silence resting over the city that they had once thought was so beautiful. A few moments later the door to the back of the van opened, and Cleaner stumbled out, leaning against a sign post they had parked beside for a moment before he turned back towards the van to look up at Gentleman as he leaned out, the man offering him one of their few loaded pistols to take with him and use for as long as he could.

 

Cleaner shook his head and pushed the gun back towards Gentleman’s chest, letting his wrist openly bleed now and drip onto the ground beneath him.

 

“Why?” Gentleman asked with a frown as he held the gun tight in his hands, and Cleaner looked back down the street from where they had come, seeing a few shambling undead making their way closer to their parked vehicle. Then he looked over to the window that Hacker had pressed his face against to see his brother off through, tears still streaming down his face and dripping off his chin. Cleaner swallowed thickly and for a moment Gentleman could swear he saw the man’s eyes begin to water behind his glasses, but when he looked back up at him, there was a fire behind his eyes.

 

Gentleman would need this gun more than Cleaner, and not just for the zombies.

 

 _Don’t let him turn_.

 

The van door was shut and before Gentleman had the chance to sit back down and buckle up they had already taken off down the street again. Hacker’s sniveling and crying was louder than before, but it almost seemed drowned out as a strange sort of heavy numbness washed over Gentleman, and after taking a few sharp, shaky breaths he managed to turn himself to look out the back window, and he watched as Cleaner stood, quickly growing smaller as distance was put between them. He watched them all drive off, ignoring the shaking of his knees and the zombies clawing at his clothing, until their van turned the corner and disappeared from sight.

 

* * *

 

They were thieves, they should have been able to take whatever they wanted from the world, even after it had ended…

 

Now though it wasn’t cash and gems, not as much anyway, but the focus had shifted to a different kind of riches; food, water, supplies. _Medicine_. They had all be relived to find out that scratches from the zombies didn’t result in the same damned fate that bites did, but they still hurt like hell and they always seemed to scratch impossibly deep and do more damage than one might think one could with jagged, broken nails. They tore at flesh, trying to rip them open more often than anything else, and with their dwindling resources it was becoming harder and harder to patch up even small wounds.

 

Ironically enough, most of the supplies that they managed to find for themselves was often guarded by undead versions of the people who had originally intended to use the goods. As it turns out, tricking and sneaking around brain dead, shambling corpses wasn’t exactly a difficult thing to do. The most you really had to worry about was the possibility of one stumbling upon you in their seemingly random wandering, and even then most of the time it was easy to dispatch the ones that did find them as they crept around hollowed out husks of buildings, shops, and hideouts looking for anything that could help them along the path of survival. Really it only got dangerous when the zombies began to outnumber them, that’s ran they ran the risk of being overwhelmed.

 

No, The zombies, as long as the thieves were careful in the endeavors, were surprisingly more of a non issue than anything. It was the few and far between living people that they happened across that proved to be far more dangerous than anything else they could come across. They were panicky, trigger happy, permanently on edge, and they really didn’t seem to appreciate it when Gentleman and his crew tried to swipe a few packed med-kits right out from their noses.

 

“Go!” Gentleman ordered in a hurried, hushed tone of voice as he pushed Redhead along, glancing back over his shoulder as Hacker trailed after them with three different medical kits tucked under his arms. “The roof! We can make our way down the escape ladder from there, Mole’s waiting down below.”

 

“nippingatourheels” Hacker said with a frantic look on his face as he managed to kick one of the doors behind himself shut as he hurried along, struggling to keep his balance as the three of them headed for the stairs. Heavy, thudding footsteps could be heard behind the three of them, along with angry shouting and orders on where to try and cut the thieves off, but Gentleman knew that it was far too late for any attempts get in their way as Redhead scrambled up the first few steps. “runrunrunfastasyoucan”

 

There were two loud bangs against the door that Hacker had just kicked shut, the second one louder as the already weak wood broke under the full force of a body slamming against it repeatedly, and one of the men chasing the three of them stumbled through, shotgun held in his hands like a vice grip. For half a second it seemed as though the man would lose his footing and fall to the ground and give them the chance that they needed to make their escape. Gentleman rounded the corner as soon as he saw him get his footing back under him, gripping the hand railing tight as he swung around it to keep from falling himself, but before he had even made it up the first set of stairs he was stopped dead in his track by a deafening, spine chilling bang that echoed all throughout the building. He squeezed his eyes shut as the man after them shouted just a little ways below.

 

“FUCK YOU!” He heard, along with a dull thud and a shaky, pained whine. “Fucking Thief...”

 

Gentleman looked back, and he saw a tattered, broken first aid kit all but blown open on the first of the stair’s landing, bandages and antiseptics ruined and leaking down onto the wooden steps, and he knew more carnage awaited him at the bottom of the stairs. He quickly grabbed his pistol and held his breath, listening to the sound of their pursuer coming up after them as fast as his legs could carry him up the stairs. He certainly didn’t expect Gentleman to be standing there, waiting for him, and a sharp, startled gasp was the only noise the man could make as Gentleman adjusted his aim, before he pulled the trigger and sent him falling back with a bullet hold through his head, blood and skull fragments hitting the wall behind him.

 

Without a second thought Gentleman descended back down the stairs, quickly stepping over the body he had just created and rounding the corner once again, only to come to a dead stop as a cold dread washed over his whole body at the sight of Hacker.

 

The man was alive, shaking with tears leaking from the corners of his eyes. He had a terrible deer in headlights expression on his face as he stared up at Gentleman from where he was laying on his front, splayed across the ground. The entire back of his hoodie was torn to bits and stained in a deep crimson red, creeping down and coating his sides as well. He lifted a trembling hand towards Gentleman, like he was trying to get him to help him up, but his eyes narrowed on his own hand and his brows furrowed in confusion and fear as he saw a heavy coating of blood on the palm and side of his hand from where it had touched the small puddle just beginning to form under him.

 

“gentleman” He choked out, confusion still clear on his face as he tore his eyes away from his eyes away from his own hand and looked back up to the man he had worked with for so many years now. He almost didn’t seem to hear the voices of their enemies approaching, growing dangerously close as they were hunted down.

 

He needed to run. He needed to get out of there before he ended off in no better of a position than Hacker was in right there on the ground. He couldn’t move though, he couldn’t even take his eyes off of him, off of Hacker’s face.

 

He couldn’t leave him, not again, not like this.

 

“Shit,” Gentleman said with a low growl, and he bounded down the last few steps and quickly crouched down beside Hacker. He was no doctor, he had no idea how to help someone who had suffered a shotgun blast to the back, if there even was a way to help him with the state he was in. He couldn’t help him here, that was for sure, but moving him…

 

He moved as quickly as he could, getting one of Hacker’s arms around his shoulder before all but dragging the smaller man to his feet. Hacker had never been terribly heavy, but dead weight was still difficult to carry, especially as he struggled to get Hacker onto his feet as best he could. For a moment Gentleman was worried that he might lift Hacker up and something might end up falling out of his back, he had no idea how bad the damage was. From the looks of it though it was just blood. A lot of it.

 

He wasn’t going to survive this. Hacker was a dead man and that caused a heavy weight to settle in Gentleman’s stomach as he yanked Hacker up the first few steps, Hacker doing his best to push himself up as he could after that, but the man looked as though he could barely keep his eyes open, he looked… he looked like…

 

One of them. The undead.

 

“heyi… imfeelingalittlebetteralready…” Hacker mumbled, a deep frown on his face at that fact, more confusion washing over his ghostly face as he muttered against Gentleman’s shoulder.

 

“That’s not a good thing...” Gentleman said lowly, and as he got around the corner, he could see Redhead at the top of the stairs, fighting against a locked door that would act as their only means of escape to freedom. She rammed her shoulder and threw her weight into it as hard as she could, but the door wasn’t budging, not for her. She looked down when she heard the two, and the way the color drained from her face when she saw the state Hacker was in nearly broke Gentleman’s heart as much as the way Hacker’s fingers had dug into his clothes, holding onto him so desperately, like he was the only thing keeping him grounded, keeping him alive.

 

“Hacker...” Redhead whispered.

 

“Take him. I need to get the door open.” Gentleman ordered, and he quickly pushed Hacker away from himself a little, passing the man off to her as best as he could despite his pained cries and the firm grip he tried to keep on him until he could no longer reach. He immediately stepped up to the top of the stairs and looked the door over before stepping back and reeling himself up to try and kick the door out.

 

“seraphimshereholdmeup” Hacker mumbled, head rested against Redhead’s shoulder as he stared up at her with tired, wet eyes, and she quickly gave his cheek a hard smack, jostling him just a little and causing his eyes to open wide, but he looked no less conscious than he did before.

 

“Baby he’s...” Redhead said, staring down at the man in her arms as he bled all down her front, her arms, her hands. Gentleman ignored her words, growling as he smashed his foot flat against the door, feeling something start to break, to give way under the force of it.

 

“moledigusout” Hacker whispered, wide eyes wandering towards the ceiling, his breathing slowing to almost nothing and his words barely audible. “takethelootandrun”

 

“Darling he’s _gone_...” Redhead said a little louder this time, her voice cracking as a sob racked her whole body, and she reached up to cover her mouth with the palm of her hand to muffle her crying, caring not for the blood it smeared on her cheeks. The shouting of men down below was encroaching rapidly, and Gentleman grew more desperate with his kicks, more vicious as the door broke down further under his foot, before finally with one powerful kick it the door violently swung open, flooding the stairwell with a bright light from the sunlight shining down on the outside rooftop.

 

“cleaner”

 

* * *

 

It was strange for Gentleman to watch someone go about life despite looking rather dead inside. Somewhere along the way, he had lost Mole to the bleakness of the apocalypse, even if the man was still alive and well physically. He wasn’t sure exactly it had happened, but perhaps the moment the first reports of people dying only to return and turn on the very people closest to them. Perhaps it had been sometime during their time trying to hide from the whole world in their hotel suit, watching the world below them going to hell as they fought off and killed anyone who dared to try to get into their little sanctuary.

 

No… Gentleman knew none of that was helping Mole cope with everything that was going on, but something told him that he was having the most trouble getting over the fact that he hadn’t actually seen the fate of the two members of their little group – Their fucked up little family, as Mole had once uttered under his breath – had perished at the forces the apocalypse had continued to throw at them. He hadn’t been able to sit and listen to Gentleman tell him what exactly had happened to Hacker, and he could only imagine in horror what had become of Cleaner after they had left the man on the side of the road. Admittedly at his request, but did that make it any easier to accept? Not really.

 

The strangest part, and the part that left Gentleman’s own stomach twisted in horrible, sickening knots, was the fact that he had seen the life and emotion drain from Mole’s eyes slowly by surely as they struggled to make their way through this new world of theirs, and he didn’t see it return until death finally came for him as well.

 

Mole’s side slammed against the thin wooden door just in time to force it shut and crush a few zombie fingers between it and the frame, and no sooner had he gotten the lock to click shut was the door rattling violently as the undead bashed against the opposite side with inhuman strength. Within seconds they had broken the weak lock, but Mole hadn’t stepped away and he kept his full weight pressed against it, digging his heels into worn carpet as he pressed his shoulder and the palms of his hands hard against the door to try and keep it shut. He only got a quick look around the room that they had all but been herded into as they tried to evade a building that had been surprisingly over-infested with zombies; something they hadn’t realized until it was far too late. Now they had themselves trapped in what looked to be a run down two room apartment flat, with nowhere safe to run and a door that was already being torn to shreds and turned to splinters and planks by a horde on the other side. Mole knew that if he stepped away for only a moment, zombies would flood in faster than they could ever hope to deal with all of them, not with as little ammo as they had.

 

There was a bathroom, but just from a glance Mole knew that it would only further corner them. Perhaps it would buy them a few precious moments of life behind another pathetic door, but it wasn’t a place to have a final stand. His eyes ran over the room they were in and locked on the only window that they could have fit through in the flat, and he quickly nodded to it. They were four stories up and he had no idea if there was any real way to consider it a viable option as an exit, but he knew they didn’t have any other choice in the moment, not with their backs literally against a wall. “Window. Only way out.” He said, before his eyes widened and quickly returned to the door as he heard slow cracking, and he could see where the zombies were breaking through the door just before an ugly, all but mangled hand broke through and began to swing around violently as it searched for something to attack. Mole had to almost duck just to avoid it.

 

Gentleman and Redhead split up, with her rushing to the window to pry it open and see what they were dealing with, while Gentleman grabbed his Shotgun and quickly loaded the last of the shells he had for it into the gun. He cocked it before jamming the barrel of it through the hole in the door, and he blindly fired it into the crowd of zombies. Mole’s eyes looked like they were about to bug out of his head, and he cursed loudly in pain as his ears rang from the sound of the blast probably doing some sort of permanent hearing damage just from one round being fired off.

 

Something on the other side of the door grabbed at Gentleman’s shotgun, almost trying to drag him closer by yanking clumsily on it, but Gentleman managed to wrench it back and stumbled backwards a little as he did so. As soon as the hole in the door was emptied, another zombie’s arm was shoved through, and almost immediately Mole felt sharp, jagged, yet surprisingly short nails dig into his cheek as it swung around and managed to hit him in the face. He could feel sting of his skin being scratched away, leaving messy, bloody streaks on his face as he jerked his head back, and more of the door’s cracking gave way to another hand clawing it’s way through and snapping wood as the door began to give way under the forces pushing on both sides. It grabbed hold of Mole like it was trying to pull him through to the other side, his already tattered shirt beginning to tear at the strength of it.

 

“There’s no easy way down!” Redhead called back as she leaned out the window. “We… well perhaps we can scale it, if we’re careful. If we fall though...” She said.

 

“No choice! Gentleman help Redhead down, Mole keep zombies back, come down after, door will hold till then.” Mole ordered, his words sounding rushed, panicked even in a way neither Gentleman nor Redhead often heard.

 

“We are not just going to leave you here, Teo, Move!” Gentleman said with a growl in his voice, stepping closer and waving the shotgun towards him to get him to step aside, but as soon as he was within reach, Mole kicked his foot out, hitting Gentleman in the stomach hard and sending him falling back on his ass, the wind knocked out of him.

 

“MOLE NOT GOING TO DISCUSS!” Mole bellowed. “GET OUT! _NOW_!”

 

Gentleman quickly looked back up when a loud crack from the door sounded as it began to fail, giving way as Zombies broke through. One shoved it’s way through by crawling, breaking more of the splintering door and nearly tearing itself open on some of the sharp edges as it raised a bloody, gangly hand towards Gentleman, undead eyes set on him. Mole quickly took care of that one by slamming the heel of his boot down onto it’s rotting skull, feeling it crunch and crush like it was nothing under the force of it. That was just one, one of so many zombies who were all trying to barrel in and grab at every living body in the room, but Mole spread his arms, and with the door all but gone, he became the only thing keeping the undead at bay.

 

Gentleman could only watch in horror as the hand that had torn at Mole’s shirt dug deeper, digging into his side, and Mole yelled out in pain, eyes squeezed shut as blood began to run down his skin and stain his clothes. More and more hands grabbed at him as zombies slammed into his arms, nearly trying to topple each other just to get closer, and it only took seconds before teeth sunk into Mole’s arms, ripping and tearing at his skin, through tough muscle, and Mole’s cries of pain only grew louder. Gentleman’s hands shook around his gun and after Mole’s eyes cracked open again, they locked with his own, Mole’s narrowed hard with… determination. Anger and frustration, sadness and agony mixed in for sure, but there was something in his eyes that told Gentleman that Mole was going to have to be torn down piece by piece just like the door he was struggling to barricade before he would allow these zombies to so much as touch either Redhead or Gentleman.

 

“GO!” Mole ordered, and more hands dug into him, claws tearing at his stomach, his back. Teeth sunk into his neck, and blood spurted, gushing out and leaving Mole all but drenched in his own blood, and his eyes softened for a second, weakened really as they watered from the pain of it all, and he stared down at his uncle he was staring up at him like he was turning into one of the monsters behind him right before his very eyes, and in a way he was. “Please...Mole not want Gentleman to see this...”

 

Gentleman could see it. Mole didn’t want to die, but he was ready to. He wasn’t going to let any harm come to him or Redhead, not while he was still alive.

 

And now… he wouldn’t be for much longer.

 

“I can’t lose you too, Mole.” Gentleman said, the words surprising him almost as much as they seemed to surprise Mole. “You’re like… to me you’re-”

 

“Go.” Mole said lowly, and Gentleman realized, he’d already lost him…

 

Scaling the side of a building wasn’t something that was uncommon for Gentleman or Redhead in their line of work, but before this they had always had tools to help them. This time there was little they could do was pray their balance was good enough that they didn’t fall from what little purchase they could find as they struggled to essentially just lower themselves down from window sill to window sill. The Apartment all but seemed deserted on the outside despite what a nightmare the inside of the building was, and though they had debated simply breaking into the room below them in hopes that there would be a clear path to an exit for them, they decided they would rather take their chance with gravity than face the horde inside once again.

 

Gentleman hit the ground after Redhead, stumbling just a little, and as soon as he could he took a few uneasy steps back and looked back up to the room that they had just escaped from, and his heart sank and blood ran cold as he saw the hands of zombies beginning to grab at the window, clearly still smelling the fact that they had been there even if they were long gone. It didn’t take long at all for their interest to move away, turning back inside where they undoubtedly had a meal awaiting them.

 

“Darling.” Redhead said, placing a soft hand on the shoulder of Gentleman’s long since ruined suit, her own fingers a bit torn up and bloody from clawing their way down the side of a building, but blood stains were no longer a concern of Gentleman’s. “Darling, we have to go...” She said, her voice raw and shaky as she spoke, grief tainting her words and shaking Gentleman from his own stupor. He still had her. He couldn’t forget that. She was all he had now.

 

Gentleman’s eyes remained locked on the window for a few more moments before _finally_ he turned, and before Redhead could move away, he reached out and grabbed her, dragging her close to wrap his arms tight around her. She held him in return for what seemed like an eternity really, and for the first time in all of their time in this hellish nightmare that they had found themselves in, Gentleman let out a quiet, almost silent shuddering sob.

 

* * *

 

“You know...” Redhead started slowly, her voice shattering the silence that had settled around her and the Gentleman hours ago. “When I said that someday it would be just the two of us against the world, this wasn’t what I had imagined.”

 

“...Oh?” Gentleman asked slowly, his voice coming to him sluggishly from unuse. He didn’t turn to look at her, but they had been sat together, side by side with their arms brushing against each other gently as they did little but sit in the dark and breathe. The entire world seemed to have gone dark around them, and as night settled over them once again, it seemed darker than ever in their little bubble of temporary peace. “What did you have in mind, dear?”

 

“Well… I always thought the fight would be one that we stood a chance in.” She said simply, very little emotion behind her words as she spoke, more so stating a fact that anything else.

 

“...” Gentleman wished he could have said something to her, could have turned to her and assured her that they did stand a chance. He had never been able to lie to Redhead though, out of all the people he had deceived and mislead over the years, she would look at him with those big blue eyes of her and he would melt, the truth falling from him easily when she asked.

 

Their room was small and terribly stuffy in the summer heat, and really Gentleman couldn’t have imagined a worse fall from grace than where he sat, with no light source for them to see anything round them other than the dim light that the moon high above provided for the two of them. Gentleman had long since shed his suit jacket and unbuttoned the first few buttons on his dress shirt in an attempt to stay cool, while Redhead had stripped down to her bra and panties, clothes laid out on the bed in front of her, still safe there even if she couldn’t really see them anymore in the dark. Would she even be able to make out any details of Gentleman’s face if she turned to look at him? The faintest hints of his features, perhaps.

 

“There’s… The fight may not be unwinnable, Darling.” Gentleman said, giving a small shrug.

 

“It is.” Redhead said, and never before had her confidence in anything made Gentleman feel so absolutely helpless. “You know it is. I know it is. For us at least. Perhaps some poor bastard out there in the world will make it through to the end of this nightmare and live with the horrors he’s seen, but you and I, Amour, it’s just a matter of time...”

 

There was a lull in the conversation, and silence returned to the room they sat in as heavy words hung in their mind and weighed their hearts down further than they had ever been. Gentleman wasn’t sure how long they had sat there after that. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, really there was no different to him anymore, not in the dead of night. He had a feeling he knew where Redhead wanted to take this conversation, but he was in no hurry to continue it, and he contented himself with sitting as close as he could to the woman he knew was his one and only, apocalypse or not. There was nobody else he could have truly imagined himself at the end of the world with, yet like Redhead, he had never imagined their end too come like this.

 

“One of us is going to die first.” Redhead muttered, shifting around just a little, but Gentleman couldn’t tell if she had turned to face him or not.

 

“Does death frighten you, Love?” Gentleman asked.

 

“No.” Redhead said simply, but there was a slight strain to her voice, something on her mind causing her breathing to pick up just a little before she spoke. “But… I’m _not_ going to be the last one standing.” She said. “I can’t. I can’t see you go. Not before me.”

 

Gentleman frowned at her words, and it took him a short while to figure out just _why_ her words upset him. There was one gun left between the two of them, sat an arms reach away on the bed before them, ready for use in case somehow an undead made it’s way into their room. The pistol Cleaner had refused to take with him, Gentleman had in turn refused to use it, but there was nothing else for them now, they were down to nothing and had only this left to their names.

 

It wasn’t the fact that Redhead wanted to take a quick way out, to make sure that the zombies would never have the chance to take her life from her. He couldn’t blame her for that in the slightest, it had crossed Gentleman’s own mind before now, and he was simply surprised that she was the one to bring it to light that out of their options, this would be the one to bring them the least pain, at least for the shortest amount of time anyway.

 

It was what she was asking him to do, to suffer through life without her even for a few moments. It would be worse than any hell he could ever go to for the crimes he had committed, the harm he had caused others during his life. To hold a gun to her head, to be the one to take her out rather than the zombies, and in a way he loved her for that all the more, but the very idea made Gentleman feel like his very soul was breaking apart in his chest.

 

“You’re asking me to-” Gentleman started, but Redhead quickly cut him off.

 

“No, No...” She said, shifting on the bed just a little as she leaned forward, and though the darkness he could just begin to make out her movements, her reaching forward for the pistol. “I could never ask that of you, Darling. I’m simply asking… let me.” She said. “Don’t let me live without you in this hellscape, even for a moment.”

 

“I’ve done nothing but let my family die.” Gentleman said coldly, closing his eyes and taking a heavy breath.

 

“Just once more, Darling. Please,” She whispered, her hands fiddling with the gun almost like she was afraid of it, despite the fact that she had held and fired guns just like this one many times before. “Let me go.”

 

Gentleman said nothing, but he simply lowered his head a little, and all he could picture were those beautiful baby blue eyes staring up at him, pleading with him to give her what she wanted. He had never been able to say no to her, and he knew that every moment she sat here with him waiting for an inevitable end, it was simply putting her through more torture that he would never wish her to suffer through.

 

Neither of them moved from their spots. There was no use to do so, and the thought of leaving each other’s side hurt more than any injuries they had ever received, any beatings they had ever taken, any stabbings, burns, bullets that had pierced their skin… Distance hurt the most.

 

Redhead took a small, shaky breath and pulled the hammer back on the pistol before lifting it to the side of her head. Gentleman waited in silence, a surprising amount of ease in his body at that moment as _his_ world ended all around him, beside him. The bang didn’t come straight away though, and as he listened, he could still hear Redhead’s quiet breathing. Then she spoke, causing him to jump a little.

 

“Darling,” She asked slowly, and oddly enough there was the slightest hint of amusement in her voice. “...Would you have made an honest woman out of me?”

 

The words seemed so strange and out of place, it took Gentleman a moment to truly wrap his mind around them for a few moments, but when he did they actually pulled a small chuckle out of himself, but even he wasn’t quite sure what was so amusing about the question.

 

“Turning a thief into an honest woman?” Gentleman asked quietly, shaking his head slowly, but he closed his eyes, imagining how gorgeous she would have looked, how much he would have loved to have called her his wife… For a the first time in so long his heart clenched with something other than pain and sadness. “I would have done my very best, for you I would have.” He assured.

 

Gentleman heard nothing else out of Redhead other than a quiet sniffle, and he wanted nothing more than to turn and wipe her tears away like he had done so many times before. He didn’t dare to turn and look though, he knew he couldn’t handle it if he did.

 

When the gunshot sounded Gentleman felt the strangest sense of peace wash over him. He could have only described it as a euphoric rush, a sense of ease that he couldn’t explain. They were all dead. He’d lost everyone and everything he had ever cared about to this plague, but knowing that they were dead and gone and nothing could ever hurt them again, it felt nothing like he expected it would.

 

The pistol ended up on the bed between the two of them, Redhead’s hand still clung loosely to the handle and he eased it away from her before lifting it up to feel in his hand. Cold and heavy, exactly what he imagined death would always feel like…

 

“I suppose it’s time for my final, grand escape, isn’t it?” Gentleman mumbled to himself, and as he closed his eyes and lifted the gun to press against the side of his head, he slipped his free hand into Redhead’s palm and laced their fingers together, wanting to stay at her side like this for eternity.

**Author's Note:**

> I like the idea of Zonaco...
> 
> Didn't put this one through the wringer. Might be a little messy.


End file.
